Item:
ONJR23SWC226

Original Identified WWI US American Army Nurse Corps Nurse’s Uniform & Ephemera Grouping - Martha Elizabeth Perkins

Item Description

Original Item: Only One Available: When war broke out in Europe, Martha Perkins left her Pomfret, Vermont home for the Massachusetts General Training School in Boston. Upon graduation in 1918, she joined the army and was on her way to France on April 24th, 1918. Soon after, she arrived at Evacuation Hospital #2 in Baccarat, France, working as a nurse during the majority of the American Expeditionary Forces’ combat record.

This is the Nurse’s uniform grouping of Martha Elizabeth Brown Perkins, a nurse in the Army Nurse Corps. The grouping is rather extensive and includes:

- Perkins’ American Red Cross Army uniform with a District of Paris patch, three overseas chevrons, medical ANC insignia on the collars, and a victory ribbon with one star. All buttons are retained and the uniform is in great condition.
- Two American Red Cross Army nurse skirts.
- Perkins’ white nurse shoes. There are small metal bars sticking up which are pushed in by the feet, a common feature in female shoes of the time.
- A Medical armband with a red cross.
- Perkins’ nurse’s uniform privately made in New York.
- A riker case with 1 District of Paris patch, two sets of dog tags named to Perkins, one set on a string, her US Victory Medal with one clasp for the Defensive Sector, one of the VERY few instances a woman would be awarded a battle clasp. Also included is the box the medal came in, several sets of her overseas chevrons, an ARC medal, a foreign service medal, and 2 brass shell casings and one piece of shrapnel from an artillery round.
- A WWI Nurse’s transparent veil with a red cross on the front.
- A WWI Nurse’s hat with a non-transparent veil.
- A Red Cross head scarf.
- Her female overseas cap.
- Framed letter to all members of the District of Paris commending them on their work during the war, with Perkins’ name written at the top.
- Hundreds of postcards, letters, membership cards, leave passes, official documentation from the American Red Cross, the Army, and far too much more ephemera to list.

Martha Elizabeth Brown Perkins was born on March 3rd, 1892 in Pomfret, Vermont. At the age of 26, Perkins left her Pomfret, Vermont home for the Massachusetts General Training School in Boston. Upon graduation in 1918, she joined the army and was on her way to France on April 24th, 1918. Soon after, she arrived at Evacuation Hospital #2 in Baccarat, France, working as a nurse during the majority of the American Expeditionary Forces’ combat record.

The head nurse of Evac. Hosp. #2, and Perkins’ first supervisor, was Beatrice M. MacDonald, the first woman to win the Distinguished Service Cross!

Beatrice Mary MacDonald, ARRC (September 27, 1881 – September 4, 1969) was a Canadian-born American nurse who served in the United States Army Nurse Corps during World War I. On January 4, 1936, she received a Purple Heart for combat wounds during World War I, making her (retroactively) the first woman to receive the award. MacDonald was also one of four women to receive the United States Distinguished Service Cross for her heroism during World War I. Other awards for her heroism included the French Croix de Guerre (Bronze), the British Military Medal for gallantry, the British Royal Red Cross (Second Class) medal, and the United States Distinguished Service Medal.

Perkins remained in France until July 6th, 1919, when she returned stateside, 15 months after arriving in France. Perkins would live a long & fulfilling life, passing away on November 23rd, 1990, at the age of 98.

Approximate Measurements:
Collar to shoulder: 10"
Shoulder to sleeve: 24”
Shoulder to shoulder: 17”
Chest width: 19"
Waist width: 17"
Hip width: 19.5"
Front length: 30"

Skirts:
Waist: 11.5"
Length: 27.5"

Pants:
Waist: 11.5"
Inseam: 30"

Smock:
Approximate measurement: Size 16

American Nurses in World War I
As a German plane buzzed overhead, nurse Helen Dore Boylston dropped face down in the mud. Boylston, an American nurse serving at a British Army base hospital near the Western Front in 1918, had been running between wards of wounded patients that night, trying to calm their nerves during the air raid. Now, all she could do was brace herself for the hissing bomb that hurtled toward her. She covered her eyes and ears against the deafening roar and “blood red flare.” About a half hour later, finally realizing she had not been hurt, Boylston stopped shaking.

Boylston’s vivid account of her World War I nursing experience, published in 1927, depicts her work with the first Harvard Unit, a U.S. medical team that treated more casualties than any other group of American doctors and nurses during the conflict. In May 1917, U.S. medical teams became the first American troops to arrive in the war zone, and many remained through mid-1919.

Over 22,000 professionally-trained female nurses were recruited by the American Red Cross to serve in the U.S. Army between 1917 and 1919 — and over 10,000 of these served near the Western Front. More than 1,500 nurses served in the U.S. Navy during this period, and several hundred worked for the American Red Cross. Additionally, a handful, like Boylston, worked in American units of the British and French armies. The U.S. military rejected for overseas service nurses who were African Americans or immigrants, despite drafting men from these groups.

Although Allied military leaders wanted to keep the (female) nurses far from danger, they soon realized that many more combatants’ lives could be saved if wounds were first treated near the front rather than at far-away base hospitals. Numerous nurses served at front-line casualty clearing stations or with forward units. In August 1917, U.S. Army nurse Beatrice MacDonald, on duty at a casualty clearing station, came under enemy fire during an air raid, and fragments of shrapnel from a bomb blast sliced through her eye. After being evacuated, MacDonald refused orders to go home, reportedly stating, “I have just started doing my bit.” With only one eye, MacDonald remained on duty in France until after the armistice, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

War nursing’s more common hazards included infected fingers, sickness, and physical strain. “My back is busted in two tonight. Slowly, [moving] down the ward, doing the dressings and making the beds,” Boylston wrote in her diary. This frequent changing of dressings and application of antiseptic, though physically exhausting, served a critical medical function in the pre-antibiotic era: It became the most effective method for healing infected war wounds and prevented many limb amputations.

In her diary, Boylston also described the social side of war — how ever-present reminders of mortality and the transience of military life lent special intensity to otherwise ordinary human relationships. For nurses, close friendships became indispensable, while romances served as welcome distractions or led to engagements.

But Boylston differed in some respects from most U.S. military nurses. She was 23, and came from an affluent family, while many U.S. Army and Navy nurses had working-class or rural origins. Laura Huckleberry, who served in Base Hospital №12, the “Northwestern Unit,” more typically exemplifies these nurses. In 1909, she left the Indiana farm where she grew up to study at the Illinois Training School for Nurses in Chicago. After graduating in 1913, Huckleberry worked as a public health nurse investigating contagious diseases in the city’s immigrant neighborhoods. When Huckleberry’s unit sailed to France to take over a British hospital at Dannes-Camiers, she was 29 and already dating the man she would marry, John Erle Davis. During her time at war, Huckleberry wrote over 150 letters to Davis, who was also stationed in France.

Huckleberry’s letters highlight the fact that U.S. Army and Navy nurses served without rank or commission, and that this lack of status created problems. After the Colonel in charge of Huckleberry’s unit unceremoniously replaced their beloved chief nurse with a younger, prettier woman, Huckleberry fumed to Davis in a letter, “If we had the commissions we should have had before leaving the U.S.A. we would not be at the mercy of such men. They would have to give a reason not only to us but to headquarters for such performances.”

Some nursing leaders agreed. A campaign to accord the U.S. military nurses rank, which coincided with the Woman’s suffrage movement, led in 1920 to a compromise in which U.S. Army and Navy nurses were accorded “relative ranks” of Lieutenant, Captain, and Major. Actual commissions would have to wait until 1947.

  • This product is available for international shipping.
  • Eligible for all payments - Visa, Mastercard, Discover, AMEX, Paypal & Sezzle

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

Cash For Collectibles